Wooden patio tables have been popular for a number of years and are becoming increasingly popular since more and more people are interested in patio cooking and eating picnic-style meals outdoors on their patios or on screened porches. Also, the concept of convertible furniture, particularly tables which convert in some way to chairs or benches, has been known in the past. However, such convertible furniture designed in the past has been heavy, cumbersome, and complicated in design, thus making this convertible furniture expensive to manufacture and impractical from a commercial viewpoint.
One of the first previously-known items of convertible furniture was shown in U.S. Pat. No. 10,908 to BASS. This 1851 patent disclosed a "convertible chair" for the cabin of a ship. This chair was arranged so the back of the chair and the arm of the chair could rotate 90 degrees and the back of the chair would form an attached eating surface in front of the chair seat. This invention was fabricated of heavy metal and provides a design which would be expensive to manufacture today; thus, it would not be satisfactory today as patio furniture.
Another type of convertible furniture is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 2,506,852 to BARCUS. This furniture consists of a table with attached benches. It converts to two benches which remain attached and are facing each other. This convertible furniture has a complicated design and, for that reason, would also be expensive to manufacture. Moreover, the benches must remain attached because a lower brace at floor level was apparently considered necessary to strengthen the design. However, this lower brace extends all the way across from one bench to the other and thus constitutes a hazard because a user might trip or stumble over it. The fact that the two benches are permanently attached and are directly facing each other also makes this design inconvenient to use.
A third, known type of convertible furniture is the convertible table shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,890,129 to ROSS. This patent also discloses a convertible table which converts to two benches. The design of this table is also complicated and requires fabrication of metal, which is heavy and expensive.
Several other examples of convertible furniture are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,900,009 to HAYNES, 2,645,273 to CULBERTSON et al, 2,557,595 to BUJJONI, and 2,113,346 to HEATH. For various reasons, none of these patents are completely suitable for use as modern patio furniture. The patents to Culbertson and Bujjoni show convertible tables which are flimsy and appear to be shaky. The patents to Haynes and Heath both show convertible items of furniture which are not really suitable for patio use because they have overly complex designs which would be expensive to manufacture. Thus, it may be seen that none of the prior art patents show convertible furniture of modern design which is also simple, strong, and comparatively inexpensive to manufacture.
Therefore, the object of this invention is to provide a convertible table which is simple and modern in design, strong, and comparatively inexpensive to manufacture.
A further object of this invention is to provide a convertible table which is attractive and has a design which allows it to be constructed of wood.